Jobs in the production of electricity

Electricity production in 2019 amounted to 71.9 billion kWh. After deduction of 4.1 billion kWh used by storage pumps, net electricity generated amounted to 67.8 billion kWh. Hydropower plants contributed 56.4% to overall electricity production (fluvial power plants 24.6%, storage power plants 31.8%) while nuclear power plants supplied 35.2% and conventional thermal plants and plants using renewable energy generated 8.4%.

Hydropower plants
The mainstay of Switzerland's electricity supply is hydropower. In 2019, more than 600 hydroelectric power stations with around 100 storage lakes and around 500 smaller hydroelectric power plants produced a total of 40.5 billion kWh. The high level of expansion of hydropower means that the supply of hydroelectricity can only be increased to a limited extent from a technical point of view. Fluctuations in the effective generation of hydropower are therefore due mainly to the different water levels in rivers and storage options in reservoirs.

Fluvial power plants
The contribution of run-of-the-river hydroelectricity plants to the total amount of hydropower generated averaged 44% over the last 10 hydrological years. Run-of-the-river hydroelectricity plants are generally hydraulic power stations. The useful gradient for energy production usually amounts to no more than 50 metres. A characteristic feature of run-of-the-river hydroelectricity plants is that production opportunities depend not only on the technical development of the plant, but above all on the amount of water currently available.

Storage power plants
The proportion of stored energy to the total hydropower generated averaged 56% over the last 10 hydrological years. A distinction is made between plants which are purely for storage and storage plants with supply pumps. The plants which are purely for storage use water from reservoirs which are supplied exclusively by natural inflows. In storage power plants with supply pumps, water from topographically lower-level catchment areas is also fed into the reservoirs. The inflows are naturally at their largest in the summer months when the snow and glaciers are melting. The stored water can be accessed as required to produce electricity and flows to the turbines along a steep gradient via pressure lines and shafts. As electricity cannot be stored, the reservoirs form an important energy reserve which is mainly used to cover the peak demand for electricity in winter.

Nuclear power plants
In 2019, electricity production by the five Swiss nuclear power plants totalled 25.3 billion kWh. This increase was mainly due to the high availability of the Leibstadt nuclear power plant. The availability rate of Switzerland's nuclear power plants in 2019 was 86.9% (2018: 83.9%). On 20 December 2019, after 47 in years in operation, Mühleberg nuclear power plant ceased generating electricity.

Consumption of electricity
The national consumption was 61.5 billion kWh in 2019. After deducting the transmission and distribution losses of 4.3 billion kWh, electricity consumption adds up to 57.2 billion kWh. Although key factors such as economic and population growth as well as weather conditions increased consumption, electricity consumption in Switzerland fell slightly. Above all, it is likely that this can be attributed to increases in energy efficiency.